NED Abstract

Copyright by Royal Astronomical Society.
2010MNRAS.401.1613N
The formation of high-redshift submillimetre galaxies
Narayanan, Desika; Hayward, Christopher C.; Cox, Thomas J.; Hernquist,
Lars; Jonsson, Patrik; Younger, Joshua D.; Groves, Brent
Abstract. We describe a model for the formation of z ~ 2 submillimetre
galaxies (SMGs) which simultaneously accounts for both average and bright
SMGs while providing a reasonable match to their mean observed spectral
energy distributions (SEDs). By coupling hydrodynamic simulations of
galaxy mergers with the high-resolution 3D polychromatic radiative
transfer code SUNRISE, we find that a mass sequence of merger models which
use observational constraints as physical input naturally yield objects
which exhibit black hole, bulge and H_2_ gas masses similar to those
observed in SMGs. The dominant drivers behind the 850 micron flux are the
masses of the merging galaxies and the stellar birth cloud covering
fraction. The most luminous (S_850_ >~ 15 mJy) sources are recovered by
~10^13^M_sun_ 1:1 major mergers with a birth cloud covering fraction close
to unity, whereas more average SMGs (S_850_ ~ 5-7 mJy) may be formed in
lower mass haloes (~5 x 10^12^M_sun_). These models demonstrate the need
for high spatial resolution hydrodynamic and radiative transfer
simulations in matching both the most luminous sources as well as the full
SEDs of SMGs. While these models suggest a natural formation mechanism for
SMGs, they do not attempt to match cosmological statistics of galaxy
populations; future efforts along this line will help ascertain the
robustness of these models.
Key words: galaxies: formation, galaxies: high-redshift, galaxies:
interactions, galaxies: ISM, galaxies: starburst, cosmology: theory